Repeating air gun



June l2, 1956 E. E. FOSTER REPEATING AIR GUN Filed Feb. l0, 1955 f'gj ATTORNEYS.

2,749,902 Patented June 12, 1956 tice REPEATING AIR GUN Edwin E. Foster, Austin, Tex.

Application February 10, 1955, Serial No. 487,313

6 Claims. (Cl. 124-13) This invention relates to repeating air guns and more particularly to a gun for shooting light projectiles, `such as Ping-pong balls.

Heretofore, a number of different types of repeating air guns have been manufactured in which a piston type pump is manually operated to discharge a single projectile upon a pumping stroke. These guns have been relatively bulky and have been expensive to manufacture due to the fact that the pump and the barrel in which the projectiles are stored and from which they are projected are separate devices.

lt is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a repeating air gun in which the construction is simplied by utilizing the same barrel as a magazine and discharge barrel and as the piston of the pump.

Another object is to provide an air gun in which the barrel is slidable in a tubular body and check valves are provided to pump successive charges of air into the barrel as it is slid back and forth in the body.

According to one feature of the invention, a sealing means is provided at the inner end of the barrel of slightly greater diameter than the barrel to engage a bearing ring carried by the body thereby to limit movement of the barrel outward of the body.

A further object is to provide an air gun in which the end of the barrel carries an elastic inflatable sleeve extending over the end of the barrel and formed with a thickened annular portion beyond the end of the barrel to seal against and restrict discharge of the projectiles so that one projectile will be discharged on each stroke of the pump.

The above and other objects and features of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of a repeating air gun embodying the invention;

Figures 2 and 3 are enlarged partial sections on the lines 2 2 and 3-3, respectively, of Figure l;

Figure 4 is an elevation of an alternative gun structure; and

Figure 5 is a partial enlarged section on the line 5-5 of Figure 4.

The gun shown in Figure l is a simulated carbine having an elongated tubular body provided at its rear end with an angular bracket 11 adapted to be pressed against the shoulder or other body portion of the user. The handle 12 is secured to the body 1l) near the forward end thereof by a sleeve portion 13 formed by com* plementary halves extending around the body and riveted or otherwise secured together by means of rivets 14. The gun is completed by an elongated tubular barrel 15 extending into the body and carrying a handle 16 which is secured to the barrel beyond the end of the body by a sleeve portion17. At its forward end the barrel carries a tiring chamber device 18 to seal against the outermost projectile and to resist discharge of projectiles from the barrel so that one projectile will be discharged with an accompanying popping or banging noise on each pressure stroke of the pump mechanism.

The barrel and body cooperate to form a piston pump which will force a charge of air into the barrel to discharge one or more projectiles therefrom each time the barrel is slid into the body. As best seen in Figure 2, the rear end of the body is closed by a plug 19. The rear end of the barrel 15 carries a closure member 22 provided in its central portion with an extending nipple 23 which is externally threaded and which is tubular to receive a check valve 24. The check valve 24 opens inwardly of the barrel to permit ow of air from the body into the barrel, but to prevent reverse ow of air.

The rear end of the barrel also carries a cup washer 25 to seal against the internal surface of the body. As shown, a disc 26 of larger diameter than the barrel is tted over the nipple to serve as a backing for the cup washer and the cup washer is loosely secured on the disc by means of a washer and nut 27. In this way, the cup washer 2S can act as a check valve to admit air into the rear end of the body but to seal against the body to prevent outow of air. The body may be perforated at its forward end for free llow of air into the body.

The barrel is supported for sliding movement in the body by ring bearing members 28 and 29 carried in the body intermediate its length and at its open end. The bearing members may be secured in the body by brazing or soldering, or in any other desired manner and provide smooth inner surfaces slidably engaging the barrel to support and guide it for sliding movement in the body. in addition, as the barrel is moved outward of the body on the pump intake stroke, the dise 26 will strike the bearing member 2S to prevent complete removal of the barrel from the body and to limit the pump stroke.

The firing chamber structure 1S may be formed, as more particularly disclosed and claimed in my co-pending application Serial No. 343,835, iiled March 23, 1953. As shown, the structure is in the form of an elastic sleeve of rubber, or the like, having a thin inatable intermediate portion 31 loosely overlying the end portion of the barrel with an inner ring portion 32 internally grooved to receive a ring 33 secured to the barrel thereby to fasten 'the discharge chamber to the barrel. At its outer end, the sleeve 31 is thickened and formed with an annular inwardly extending sleeve portion 34 of a diameter smaller than the diameter of the barrel and the projectiles to be tired, as indicated at 35, so that it will seal against the outermost projectile in the barrel and will resist discharge thereof. As pressure is developed in the barrel, the sleeve portion 31 will inflate due to its elasticity and due to the fact that it is thinner than the ring portion 32 or the annular sealing portion 34. When the pressure becomes sufficiently great, the sealing portion 34 will yield to permit the outermost projectile to discharge accompanied by a loud popping or banging noise. Discharge of the outermost projectile will relieve the pressure in the sleeve portion which will collapse to its normal position, as shown, so that the sealing portion 34 will engage and stop the next projectile in the series ready for a subsequent tiring operation.

In use the operator may place the stock member 11 against his shoulder or other convenient portion of his body with his two hands gripping the handles 12 and 16. By moving the handle 16 outwardly and then inwardly the pump will be operated to draw in air past the check valve 21 on the outward stroke and to compress the air and force it into the barrel past the check valve 24 -on the inward stroke. On each inward stroke a single pro jectile or two or more projectiles in succession, depending on the pump stroke, will be discharged from the barreland the operation can be continued until all of the projectiles in the barrel are discharged.

For reloading, the outer thickened portion 34 of the discharge chamber can be easily turned back over the thin sleeve portion 31 to leave the end of the barrel unobstructed. A series of projectiles can then easily be dropped into the barrel which can be loaded completely to its inner end, as indicated in Figure 2. Upon turning the thickened portion back to its normal position, the gun is then ready for subsequent tiring.

In this construction, the barrel itself serves as a part of the pump thereby greatly simplifying the construction of the overall gun. Furthermore, since the barrel does serve as a part of the pump, it can be completely loaded from one end to the other with projectiles, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, so that a gun of extremely large capacity for a small compact size is provided. The projectiles may take various different forms, but are preferably as shown in the form of light weight balls, such as conventional table tennis balls.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate a different version of the repeating gun of the invention in a somewhat smaller size. As illustrated in Figure 4, the gun may have the external appearance of a rocket with a tubular body 36 carrying at its outer end a tapered closure 37 and with the barrel 3S slidable in the body and carrying a handle 39 having double projecting portions thereon giving the appearance of the fins on a rocket. The inner end of the barrel carries a check valve 43 and a cup washer 44 in substantially the same manner as in the embodiment of Figure 1 and 3. At its outer end, the body carries a sleeve member 45 which may be press tted, cemented, or otherwise secured thereto and which has an inwardly turned ange 46 at its outer end of a diameter to engage the barrel to guide it and to engage the projecting cup washer structure on the barrel to prevent complete removal of the barrel from the body. If desired, a resilient ring 47 may be fitted over the barrel and a similar ring 47 may be provided in the guns of Figures l to 3 to act as a resilient bumper between the handle structure 39 and the ring 45. At its outer end, the barrel carries a firing chamber 51 which may be identical to the ring chamber structure 18 of Figures l to 3.

While two embodiments of the invention have been shown and described herein, it will be understood that they are illustrative only and not to be taken as a denition of the scope of the invention, reference being had for this purpose to the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A repeating air gun comprising an elongated tubular body, an elongated tubular barrel slidable into and out of the body and formed to hold a series of projectiles in alignment in the barrel, check valve means in the inner end of the barrel and in the body to admit air into the body when the barrel is slid outward of the body and to trap air in the body and force it into the barrel when the barrel is slid into the body, and an annular resilient restriction at the outer end of the barrel to seal against the outermost projectile of the series and yieldingly to resist discharge thereof from the barrel.

2. A repeating air gun comprising an elongated tubular body, an elongated tubular barrel slidable into and out of the body and formed to hold a series of projectiles in alignment in the barrel, check valve means in the inner end of the barrel and in the body to admit air into the body when the barrel is slid outward of the body and to trap air in the body and force it into the barrel when the barrel is slid into the body, an annular resilient re-' striction at the outer end of the barrel to seal against the outermost projectile of the series and yieldingly to resist discharge thereof from the barrel, and handles `on the body and the barrel by which they can be manually slid relative to each other.

3. A repeating air gun comprising an elongated tubular body, an elongated tubular barrel slidable into and out of the body and formed tohold a series of projectiles in alignment in the barrel, check valve means in the inner end of the barrel and in the body to admit air into the body when the barrel is slid outward of the body and to trap air in the body and force it into the barrel when the barrel is slid into the body, an annular resilient restriction at the outer end of the barrel to seal against the outermost projectile of the series and yieldingly to resist discharge thereof from the barrel, a stock member at the end of the body to be placed against the body of a user, and a handle projecting laterally from the barrel beyond the end of the body by which the barrel can be slid into and out of the body.

4. A repeating air gun comprising an elongated tubular body, an elongated tubular barrel slidable into and out of the body and formed to hold a series of projectiles in alignment in the barrel, the body being of larger internal diameter than the external diameter of the barrel, sealing means at the inner end of the barrel projecting beyond the barrel sealingly to engage the body, an annular guide ring carried by the body slidably engaging the barrel, the sealing means being engageable with the guide ring to limit outward movement of the barrel relative to the body, an inwardly opening check valve in the body to admit air thereto when the barrel is moved outward, an inwardly opening check valve in the inner end of the barrel to admit air thereto from the body when the barrel is moved inward, and an annular resilient restriction at the outer end of the barrel to seal against the outermost projectile in the barrel and yieldingly resist discharge thereof.

5. A repeating air gun comprising an elongated tubular body, an elongated tubular barrel slidable into and out of the body and formed to hold a series of projectiles in alignment in the barrel, inwardly opening check valve means in the body and the inner end of the barrel to pump air into the barrel as it is slid in and out in the body, and an elastic inflatable sleeve fitting over the outer end of the barrel and secured thereto at a distance from the end of the barrel, the sleeve including a sealing portion of greater thickness than the body of the sleeve extending beyond the end of the barrel and of a normal diameter less than the projectiles to seal against and yieldingly resist discharge of the outermost projectile.

6. A repeating air gun comprising an elongated tubular body, an elongated tubular barrel slidable into and out of the body and formed to hold a series of projectiles in alignment in the barrel, the body being of larger internal diameter than the external diameter of the barrel, sealing means at the inner end of the barrel projecting beyond the barrel sealingly to engage the body, an annular guide ring carried by the body slidably engaging the barrel, the sealing means being engageable with the guide ring to limit outward movement of the barrel relative to the body, the sealing means unseating to admit air into the body when the barrel is moved outward and sealing against the body when the barrel is moved inward therein, an inwardly opening check valve in the inner end of the barrel to admit air thereto from the body when the barrel is moved inward, and an annular resilient restriction at the outer end of the barrel to seal against the outermost projectile in the barrel and yieldingly resist discharge thereof.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 115,638 Quackenbush June 6, 1871 560,570 Burns May 19, 1896 1,084,599 Ballentine Jan. 20, 1914 2,449,187 Walters Sept. 14, 1948 2,451,593 Washington Oct. 19, 1948 2,521,135 Stark Sept. 5, 1950 2,574,408 Moe Nov. 6, 1951 2,587,687 Beyers Mar. 4, 1952 

